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Many tenants need to customize the space they lease, whether it’s in an office building or shopping center. But altering space—even for simple improvements—can be complicated. So when signing leases, you’ll want to have a work letter agreement—a contract that establishes the terms and conditions of structural changes that will be made to the tenant’s space prior to moving in.
Hearing the term “drop-dead date” when negotiating your lease with a tenant is usually stress inducing. That’s because the tenant typically would want you to suffer stiff consequences if the drop-dead date—that is, the date by which the space must be delivered—isn’t met. Free rent, significant monetary penalties, and, sometimes, a termination option are some requests tenants make.
In all commercial real estate leases, it’s of the utmost importance that definitions are unambiguous and cover foreseeable events. For example, damage and destruction in the space is a possibility anywhere, whether in retail or office building properties. But if you want to make the tenant responsible for damage to the property, you’ll need to specify where the damage would be. Designating whether damage that is the tenant’s problem is “exterior&...
Tenants large and small are attracted to the best deals for commercial space. But savvy tenants know that bottom line-friendly deals aren’t limited to items like comparatively low base rent rates or generous concessions and improvement allowances that beat offers from other landlords. Especially if you need to fill vacancies at your center or office building, it’s important to let tenants know that you’ll do your best to control seemingly small costs t...
Despite an uncertain political climate, foreign investors are keen to continue investing in U.S. commercial real estate. In fact, the U.S. continues to be the single largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world, to the tune of more than $450 billion from other countries since 2016, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of Commerce.
If you’ve signed a lease with a tenant that contains a “subrogation” clause, you might think that you’re off the hook for damage caused in the space. That’s because most subrogation clauses include a waiver from the tenant stating that the owner isn’t liable for damage. But that’s not always the case. For example, a Louisiana court took into account the fact that the owner’s handling of a plumbing problem in the space it r...
A big part of successfully running a shopping center is ensuring the safety of tenants, their employees, your employees, and customers. With security cameras or a security guard and alarms, you might think that you have the safety aspect of your operations locked down. But here’s something that could be overlooked and that can come back to burn you, figuratively and literally: inadequate or no insurance for tenants whose businesses create waste that’s danger...
Unfortunately, tenant bankruptcies are something you’ll probably have to face if you own an office building or shopping center long enough. You need to take every step possible to protect yourself. The good news for shopping center owners is that bankruptcy laws give you more assignment protection than they give to owners of other types of properties. That is, you’re protected from an assignment that disrupts the tenant mix at your center. You can employ two...
Q: In my lease with a new tenant at my shopping center, I agreed to waive rent payments until I completed tenant improvements that had been negotiated. But I’m having financial difficulties and would like to start charging the tenant rent to compensate. If the tenant balks at this, what are my odds of prevailing if it becomes a legal battle?
In recent years, filling space at shopping centers with smaller, non-traditional tenants rather than large national stores (many of which are suffering financially) has been a successful strategy for landlords. If you’re taking advantage of this rapidly growing trend, you should be aware that, while in the short term it can boost profits, it carries a substantial amount of risk in the long term. That’s because many smaller tenants often have a limited—...